A Saturday Morning Cook-up

Last Saturday morning I baked two bread puddings, two apricot and sultana crumbles, and a double batch of chocolate chip cookies. I used too much baking powder in the cookies (you can sort of taste it) and I removed the foil from the bread puddings 30 minutes into baking, and then baked them for 45 minutes uncovered. This meant that the tops caught and got a little charred. Next time I will leave them covered for much longer. I used brandy flavouring in the cookies because I used the last of my vanilla essence in the bread puddings. This worked well.

Doing a big bake up on Saturday morning was nice, it meant there were plenty of sweets to put away in the freezer, and I made use of the hot oven. Also one lot of dishes to wash. I decided that this Saturday I would cook up a big batch of savoury meals to freeze, and put music on and enjoy the process.

I'd been given a big tray of field mushrooms that were picked nearby, bought some big potatoes and onions, and thawed out about a kilogram of steak and chicken thighs. With these I cooked two steak & mushroom pies, two creamy potato bakes, two tuna mornays and two chicken & vegetable stews.

I diced the chicken roughly and fried it in my stainless steel skillet in batches, seasoning each batch as I went. By the time all the chicken was fried there was a wonderful fond built up on the bottom of the pan. I have seen how people use onions and mushrooms with salt on top to draw the water out and use that water to deglaze the pan, but I couldn't get enough out of mine to deglaze it, so in with the chicken stock. This made a very flavourful liquid to cook everything in, and I added peas, green beans and broccoli as I put everything into a big pot to cook down. Seasoning included smoked paprika, thyme and salt & pepper. This has gone in the freezer, but the mouthful I tried before packing it away was very flavourful.

The potatoes I sliced thinly on the mandolin, and I added two rashers of chopped bacon and half a red onion that I diced and sauteed with the bacon in its fat into some milk and cream, along with smoked paprika, garlic powder, salt and pepper. I poured a little liquid into the base of each dish, and then layered the potatoes down with additions of milk each couple of layers, then topped with cheddar. I baked for 30 minutes covered, and 30 minutes uncovered. I really didn't  get what I wanted from this. Undercooked, underseasoned potato and a watery sauce are not my idea of a good potato bake. Next time I will cook for at least 90 minutes, either thicken the milk with cornstarch or a roux, or use much more cream. It could do with a whole onion, and a layer of seasonings added with each layer of the sauce. Maybe also cheese in each layer, but that's a lot of cheese. I will try again.

For the tuna mornay I cooked shell pasta until it was almost done, laid it in the baking dishes, and made a big pot of béchamel sauce, and then added cheese, tuna and frozen peas to it, then brought it back up to temperature before putting it in the dishes and covering with breadcrumbs. I thought it would be a good idea to add the juice from the tuna cans to the sauce to save seasoning, but I now wonder if this was a good idea. Maybe it will taste more fishy than I had hoped. We will see when I eat it. For now it has been frozen.

The steak and mushroom pie started with trimming the fat and sinew out of the steak, dicing them and then frying them in the same skillet I had fried the chicken. May as well use that flavour. I fried them in batches again, removed them after they were brown. Then I added a diced onion, chopped some carrots, and thinly chopped a potato and started cooking those. Deglazed the pan with 2 dissolved cubes of beef stock, then added the whole lot to the pot that I had just taken the chicken stew out of and added peas, butter beans and a tin of tomatoes while I made the pie crust using this recipe. I always need to add more water than they say, and I add just a pinch of sugar, but otherwise it's pretty good. Then I remembered the mushrooms, so I brushed and chopped those up, sauteed those in the skillet that I'd cooked everything else in and added them. Brought it all to a boil while the pie crust chilled in the fridge and added cornstarch to thicken, then put the whole lot in the baking dishes and added the pie crust. This time I baked it for 30 minutes but applied egg wash twice, once before putting it in the oven, and once after fifteen minutes when I also switched sides (the right side cooks faster). Had some of this tonight for dinner and it was delicious. Made up for the disappointing potato bake.

As for the music that I cooked to? This weekend it was Widow's Weeds by Silversun Pickups, A Deeper Understanding by The War on Drugs, Eat the Elephant by A Perfect Circle and I am Easy to Find by The National. Great albums, and tickets to see The National go on sale in a couple of weeks. Hopefully I can get one.